Tell me what is being done on earth that the earth is so afflicted and shaken?”
Noah in the Hebrew Book of Enoch
They say that if the flood, which occurred in the time of Deucalion (Greek Noah figure), destroyed most living things, the inhabitants of southern Egypt survived more than any others.
1st century BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus
What ferryboat shall be brought to you? Bring me It-flies-and alights.
The earth speaks, the gate of the earth god is open, the doors of Geb are opened to you. . . .May you remove yourself to the sky upon your iron throne.
Excerpts from the Pyramid Texts of Saqqara, Egypt
And that their inventions (knowledge of heavenly bodies) might not be lost, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone; they inscribed their discoveries upon them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the Flood, the pillar of stone might remain and exhibit these discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them.
1st century Jewish historian Josephus writing about the antediluvian world’s inhabitants
Stelae in the land of Seiria . . . inscribed in the sacred tongue in hieroglyphic letters by Thoth, the first Hermes, and translated after the flood from the sacred tongue into the Greek language . . .
Contained in the letter of the Monk Syncellus to Ptolemy
Ancient Japanese Manuscript
That dark night, fiercely marching clouds obscured the moon and the stars, trampling across the sky like black-clad warriors.
Gold broke the group’s traumatized silence. “It is rather curious. Unlike other earthlings that co-exist in harmony, humanity is in a state of imbalance and chaos. Certain things about them are insensible, like overpopulation, insatiable consumption, or destructive interactions with nature.”
Oxygen added. “What troubles humans?” “Buddha always said that it is only hardship, poverty, despair, and material struggle that transforms people into monsters,” Sodium replied.
“Humans are generally self-centered. They seem unaware of their true purpose in life, to find their path to the Source.”
Silicone answered. “Indeed, humans are a successful, dominant, but disharmonious species. They abuse power, whether wielding a stick, sword, or atomic power.”
“But beauty is embedded in human souls. Young children are angelic. Maybe, surviving their desperate adult lives transforms them.”
“I agree. All humans instinctively recognize and respect goodness.”
Sulphur summed it nicely. “As if a reflection of the “Divine Fire” resides in the depths of their consciousness.”
Titanium had been quietly dealing with a lingering issue. “What future ‘galactic alignment’ was the Voice talking about?”
Soon, the Transportal whisked the group away. When they arrived, Helium exclaimed, “Great! We love mountains and lakes.”
Indeed, lushly forested highlands and a clear blue lake snaking out of view behind a distant mountain peak delighted their eyes. The lake’s long, narrow shape identified it as a melting glacier’s end point, now teeming with marine life. Countless birds hovered above, repeatedly diving into the cold, clear water. Not too far from our friends, children swam and played near the shore. Narrow plumes of white smoke in the distance and the faint sound of mothers calling their children presaged a human settlement nearby.
Old evergreen forests covered the mountainsides and the lakeside plain. Other species of younger vegetation hinted at a slowly warming climate, which did not escape our friends’ attention as they tried to figure out their whereabouts.
“I see several kinds of birds and vegetation I remember seeing only in the pre-flood library records,” Silicone said. “Some are extinct in our era. Friends, I believe we may be in a pre-flood epoch.”
“How do you figure?” Mercury asked.
“Most of the flora and fauna here once existed in large numbers, according to the records at the library, but the flood washed them away. Since then, most of them have been extinct. That’s why I believe we’ve been delivered to that age.”
“Who built your library, the gods?”
“I have never known.”
Just then Nitrogen returned from its usual aerial canvass and directed everyone’s attention to the near distance. “There’s an assembly of some kind.”
The group saw a fairly large group of old men and women walking up a hill and headed for them. Within minutes, they reached the lakeside plateau where the crowd was gathering. From there they saw that the snake-like lake stretched all the way behind the mountains.
The distant plumes of smoke now looked like dancing white serpents children had left. The turning the lake a deep purple that reminded them of their night at Bozorgmehr’s lakeside villa.
Most of the old people wore simple white robes, though some wore colorful capes, hats, or ornaments. They were all quite old and gray. They walked calmly, contentedly, steadily, albeit most used canes. Our friends noticed a glow of peace and tranquility in their eyes. The humans of their era were not so serene.
One by one the elders reached the hill, greeted one another, and embraced joyfully. Many others approached.
“How can any one village have so many grannies?” Helium wondered.
“I doubt they’re all from the same village,” Oxygen said. “The way they greet shows they haven’t seen each other for a while. Perhaps, many are from neighboring regions.”
“They must be here for some important event. Look at them!” Indeed, hundreds of old men and women were scrambling up the hill, some helping the others.
Then Iron spotted a shrine formed by a cavity dug into a large boulder. Many dozens of candles and clay oil lamps burned beside the shrine, some shaped like serpents or with serpents and dragons engraved on them. Inside the cavity was a crumpled metallic object.
“What on earth is that?” Iron asked.
“It must be an alien,” Phosphorus guessed.
A voice from inside the object answered. “True, we are very rare in this world but not alien to it. I am Krypton.”
“My! I’ve heard of your kind, but I never thought I would have the pleasure.”
“Please, the pleasure is mine. I just sit here idly rising to the heavens. The sun was below the horizon, to be adored as a sacred object, but you all sound so worldly.”
“Why have these old folks put you in this shrine?”
“As best I remember, we were part of a flying craft. I recall being cast down at some point, after an explosion. Then these people’s ancestors found us and brought us here. They still look after us.”
“A Vimana?” Chlorine ventured.
“What’s going on here tonight? Is this a regular event? Who are these people?” Silicone fired three questions.
“I’ve seen most of them before. They come here regularly to make offerings and sing hymns to their benevolent gods. Sometimes they gather here for talks, celebrations and so on. I believe they’re from the nearby villages and towns, but they rarely gather here all at once. There must be a special event I’m not aware of. That one over there is the High Priestess of the nearby village. She’s the official caretaker of this shrine.”
They looked at the High Priestess. She was a tall woman with long, snow-white hair, and bronzed skin. She wore a flowing white robe and sandals. Her eyes glowed intensely from her wrinkled face, a kind of grandmotherly expression engrained in most children’s memory. She held a wooden staff shaped like the head of a snake. An embroidered blue ‘+’ adorned her robe. Our friends saw that as a good omen.
People approached her with seemingly important inquiries that she answered. Our friends saw that everyone who talked with her wore an expression of joy and astonishment. After they talked to her, they engaged each other in intense discussions.
The group briefed Krypton about their journeys and inquired about their surroundings. “This place is a highland paradise. Where are we, and in what era?”
“I know that we are in the only significant highlands in northeastern Africa. As for the time, I guess that’s relative to your point of reference. I do know that people here tell of a great cataclysm that shook the earth and the heavens a few millennia ago.” Krypton replied.
“We must be in the mountains of the Horn of Africa, the land that will be known as Abyssinia or Ethiopia. A land of proud, independent people who have many ancient traditions and myths.” Silicone added.
“But Ethiopia is arid. This is subtropical landscape.” Mercury objected.
“Remember,” Silicone cautioned, “we may be here during the time when millions of cubic miles of ice was thawing in the geological equivalent of the twinkling of an eye. The atmospheric moisture caused coastal floods, formed large lakes and great flowing rivers, and brought on torrential rains. The face of our world was transformed for millennia. Ancient records refer to a much greener north and northeast Africa, Middle East, and other places like coastal Peru. Arid now, they were once home to early post-cataclysm recovering civilizations. Agriculture was an absolute necessity after the loss the flora and fauna that fed earlier hunter-gatherers of the ice age. The African Sahara is a very young desert. Studies show it was a green savannah up to around 9,000 B.C. From about 14,000 B.C. it rained here plenty. The climate was cooler, cloudier, and wetter, which may explain the evidence of water erosion around the North African landscape. The climate changed after the global flooding of around 10,500 B.C. Sand slowly buried ancient Egypt, but her people cherished the memory of bygone eras when the gods were in their midst.”
Silver: “Does that explain the evidence of extensive water erosion at the monuments of Giza?”
Silicone: “It is claimed that these monuments are a little over four millennia old. But, between four to three millennia before our era, during the time of 19th Dynasty Pharaohs, both the Valley Temple’s severely eroded stonewalls and the Sphinx’s body were refaced with new masonry. They indisputably recorded such renovations on stone tablets placed nearby. So, if four thousands years ago these monuments were already severely eroded to require renovations, then it is safe to assume that they must be much older. The Sphinx’s head was never refaced with new masonry, and unlike its lower body it does not show any sign of serious erosion. You can still see traces of its headdress’s red and white stripe colorings. I wonder if it was just resculpted, and what kind of a face it may have originally possessed.”
“Do these monuments hold secrets of a bygone epoch?”
“I suspect that you folks may be right,” Krypton said. The people here talk of gods roaming about. I will come back to that, but first, I want to ask Silicone about a strange story I heard from a couple of pilgrims. They described a land far to the north which suddenly became a frozen abyss where the sun and the stars came out for only one long day in the whole year.”
Silicone recounted the story of the pole shift and its effect on Siberia, the ancient Aryana Veja. He finished by saying, “It was an era of traumatic events. Countless ancient myths recall the survivors’ struggles and of mysterious civilizing gods who descended from the heavens to help them.”
The sky had now turned dark, and only the hilltop bonfires and the crescent moon lit the surroundings. Everyone was eagerly anticipating something, though our friends did not know what. Hydrogen addressed their new friend. “You said these people speak of gods who roam the earth. Tell us more.”
“Consider that,” Krypton replied, “these peoples’ ancestors commonly used the word god to mean any stupendous natural entity or event. They called the star constellations, sun, moon, and the heavenly bodies gods. Also powerful natural forces like lightning, the seas, storms, earthquakes were adored.”
“So, were there really gods who guided and taught them civilization? Are they just mere fantasies about cosmic phenomena?”
“I don’t quite know how to answer you. As I said before, I was part of a fantastically fast flying craft, until the accident brought me to this rocky crevice. I have seen superb flying crafts in the northern skies now and again. I’m as amazed as the people here, who drop to their knees and put their hands together to show respect for the winged gods, as they call them. They are supposed to come from north of here in the land of the mighty river. The elders never fail to remind their young ones that those gods saved life after the catastrophes. They say they came right after the calamity and taught the survivors to build shelters and settlements, make tools, use fire, grow food and breed animals. They taught them about weather and the seasons. They are still in contact with humankind’s great leaders. Their contact here is the High Priestess.”
“Have you heard of any Egyptian gods called Ra, Osiris, Horus, Isis, or Thoth?” Copper asked.
“They speak a different language and name their godlike characters differently. All I know is what the people say or sing as prayer hymns. There is a gap between the godlike beings and what they see, hear, understand, and believe. They don’t understand the gods’ technologies, so what they say needs to be deciphered.
“There are strange stories about the first godkings guarding the earth after the calamity and helping regenerate life. They were superhuman. They had great mental, physical, and psychic powers. They manipulated objects magically and had unfamiliar acoustic powers, what the people call the “word” or the “unspoken language”. They apparently live much longer than humans. They are taller than humans. Their faces shine, their eyes are bright, their skin is a shiny blue. They wear strange clothing and large helmets that generate magical powers.”
Our friends looked at each other. Sounded familiar.
“They have known of their gods for a long time. A group of them has lived alongside the surviving humans since the last major cataclysm. People believe they come from the land of the Mighty River to the north.”
“The Nile,” Silicone explained needlessly.
“They monitor the world, assisting, organizing, and re-educating the survivors, who sing hymns of gratitude before meals or sleep, or at shrines like this. They never force anything but rather promote mutual cooperation. Their assemblies feature consciousnesselevating music. People say they have altered plants and animals in their scientific centers to adapt them to domestication. One created regional learning centers where he teaches select elders writing, sciences, building arts, and the study of the true nature of existence. They say he understands everything and imparts knowledge and wisdom to the worthy for future safekeeping. They tell their children he is out when the moon is a crescentshaped like tonight and may visit them in their sleep, bearing gifts. The crescent moon is his insignia.”
“Thoth!” Copper cried.
“Are these gods associated with serpent/dragon symbolism?” Oxygen asked.
“Indeed,” Krypton said, “one symbol for them is a serpent/dragon creature. They symbolize the god I mentioned with two serpents coiled around a winged staff, a symbol from their heavenly world.
“Their hymns speak of their gods’ technologies. One about the journey of people who die goes this way: The gods who are in the sky are
brought to you. The gods who are on
earth assemble for you. They place their
hands under you. They make a ladder for
you that you may ascend on it to the sky.
The doors of the sky are thrown open to
you. The doors of the starry firmament
are thrown open for you.”
“We’ve heard of the ladder before,” Mercury said.
“Others may explain my origin”, Krypton said.
“The king is aflame, moving before the wind to the sky and to the end of the earth. The king travels the air and traverses the earth. There is brought to him a way of ascent to the sky.
The earth speaks. The gate of the earth god is open. The doors of heaven are opened for you. May you remove yourself to the sky upon your bja throne.”
“What bja?”
“In ancient Egyptian it meant the metal of heaven or divine metal. The Egyptians used it later to mean iron, once they discovered it.” Silicone explained.
Our friends watched the elders chatting, or gazed at the scenery. Like a heavenly mirror, the calm lake seemed a perfect backdrop, reflecting the crescent moon and the stars. The High Priestess and a few elders assembled on a rocky crag overlooking the lake and talked intensely as they watched the sky above the lake eagerly. Something important was in the air.
A sudden commotion interrupted their pensive silence, and everyone stood suddenly, turning excited eyes to the northern skies. Some put their hands together and began praying and rejoicing. The High Priestess raised and extended her arms and began to sing a hymn.
“I think I see a light moving too fast to be a star,” Titanium said.
“It’s a flying craft. I sense its force field,” Krypton added.
Our friends were excited at the prospect of seeing a vimana. Would they also meet the mythical savior, the dying gods of antiquity? They began to share the people’s jubilation.
The moving light grew brighter, crossing the night sky rapidly at a low altitude. Finally it descended slowly, maneuvering flawlessly toward the northern end of the dark lake. They saw its bright contour and flashing blue and white lights.
Its flat, round body was a symmetrical airfoil that sliced through the air in a gliding motion, all the while generating an intense radiant light. Then while still at some distance, the craft suddenly stopped and hovered about twenty feet above the surface of the lake. It turned and approached the onlookers. Our friends saw a shining base rotating about a central axis, and heard only a quiet hissing.
“A flying gyroscope,” Silicone suggested.
“What powers it?” Uranium wondered aloud.
The flashing strobe lights went off, and the craft dimmed. A humanoid entity emerged from a hatch at the top and stood motionless as his tall, slim body rose above the craft on a shining circular platform floating in mid-air. The metallic platform consisted of two round plates, separated by a luminescent energy field. The elders knelt in respect.
The entity wore a shining white cape over a tight silver-blue suit. On his upper left chest an insignia caught our friends’ attention: a ‘+’ sign inside a circle— ⊕. He held a golden staff, its handle a reared dragon with serene, half-closed eyes. He wore a large metal headgear, a half-elliptical canister on top of which rested a deep blue Around the reaching a zenith and supporting protruding clear flat panels on either side.
As the god approached they saw it was over seven feet tall without any body hair, an elongated face, and shining skin that glowed like the moon. His elongated eyes were larger than most humans’, their deep blue shining like sapphires. His skin color tone was slightly blue-hued like a cloud-covered shallow tropical sea.
“Judging from his complexion and eyes, I think he is from some a place without much light. Perhaps that is why he has come at night,” Silicone commented.
The metallic platform stopped and lowered to a small cleared area covered with wildflowers. The elders were silent and motionless. The god’s helmet began to emit a dim blue light, and after a moment the god began to address the crowd in a language Krypton understood. Our friends were amazed that neither the god’s mouth, nor lips moved. His audible telepathic words came from somewhere in his helmet. “My children, my friends, be at rest.”
The High Priestess remained standing, her hands together. She looked down as she addressed the visitor. “Your Highness, my Lord. We are overjoyed to be in spherical crystal the size of a walnut. canister coiled two metallic serpents, your presence. We have eagerly awaited this moment since you sent word of your coming. I have done as you asked and gathered your disciples this night.”
The entity, whom the priestess called Guardian, nodded gratefully when she set an exquisitely enameled blue terracotta jug containing liquid on a platform. His body, as well as his helmet, increased in brightness. A woman among the onlookers asked the Guardian why he had come to them.
“We come from a world not unlike yours. It has a star and moons. It is far from here. Not many of my kind can visit your beautiful world as frequently as they wish. That is why some of us stay here among you.”
The woman asked, “Guardian, where is your world?”
The Guardian looked at the sky and pointed upward. “There. That is where my people live.”
“He’s pointing to the direction of Orion and the star Sirius, right?” Mercury murmured.
Silicone nodded. “Yes. They are in the same part of the sky. Many ancient civilizations revered them. But which one is the Guardian’s star system?”
“We have much water there,” the Guardian said. “That is why we love water and are at home in it. But our planet gets less starlight. Your sun is too intense for us, so we are creatures of the night here. We have been visiting your world for thousands of Earth years. We have older memories of this world than you do. Earth is your home, but we also feel at home here. We believe in living harmoniously with all the cosmos. For as long as we have been here, we have played an important role in your planet’s wellbeing.
“Why did we come? There are many intelligent life forms in our universe, all at different levels of development. Fundamentally, all life forms share one thought: the search for the nature of existence and all the queries that naturally arise from that field of inquiry. All beings are, however, bound in some degree to a material dimension of the universe. Everywhere in the universe, living beings experience consciousness. They feel and are aware of themselves and their existence. They know fatigue, hunger, happiness, affection, or sadness. The physical body is a shell with needs, and limitations in strength, ability, and presence in time and space. The body is a vehicle for the spirit, a material shell that extracts energy and minerals from its surroundings to survive and be comfortable. Yet that is not our true essence. Our bodies host our spirits, which are formless and immaterial.”
The Guardian detected confusion among his audience, and changed his tack. “Let me tell you why we came in the first place. All star systems and planets are configured differently. Planets vary in size and mineral composition and abundance. Advanced entities travel beyond their own worlds to explore others. We value your world’s minerals. Since a very long time ago, before your ancestors existed, we have visited your planet. They found various subspecies of primitive humanoids, living simply. They avoided us strange visitors. Then despite our policy of non-interference, something happened. Around 135,000 earth-years before now, a visiting mission stayed a long time. Forced by the isolation and tempted by curiosity, our visitors befriended a group of Homo sapiens. The transfer of civilizing advantage, humanoid species. After that, your world and ancestors became our moral responsibility. Many millennia passed until that dreaded event 4,500 years ago.”
The Guardian paused, its shining face traumatized. The luminescent halo diminished considerably, surely an indication of love and information gave them a competitive and over time, they replaced the other compassion. “He must be referring to the pole shift,” Silicone murmured.
“My Lord,” the priestess asked, “did other catastrophes befall the world before the last one?”
“Yes, my child. A similar event destroyed almost all life on earth millions of years ago. Giant marine life, amphibians and lizards, and intense vegetation filled the oceans and the land. An asteroid collided with Earth. Almost every living thing died in a very short time. Billions of decomposing organisms sunk into layers of the earth’s crust. The ‘bitumen’ you use as waterproofing or fuel is the remains of their decayed organic mass. The last calamity was milder because the asteroid did not hit Earth directly. The asteroid’s gravitational shock wave and its tail of rock, dust, and superheated compressed gas whiplashed the planet. The earth’s magnetic field and crust slipped, causing floods, earthquakes, electro-magnetically charged storms, and volcanic eruptions. It wiped out most life on earth, including our installations. We sent assistance from various places at once.”
“The Sumerian myth of Tiamat whose tail whipped the world?” Phosphorus suggested.
The Guardian continued. “I can not imagine what would have happened to this beautiful world had the asteroid hit it head on, but the devastation its shock wave caused was bad enough. Unfortunately, due to time-space relations, it took us years to get here. What our rescue teams found filled them with grief and horror. Black smoke from the volcanoes and massive fires darkened the sky for years. Most life was crushed into an organic pulp. Walls of water had swept great swaths of land clean. Only the higher ground escaped the floods. Only remnants
challenges confronted
of life survived. Formidable us. The survivors were a community of savages, thrown back to the Stone Age. Hardly any trace of civilization remained. When we found them, your ancestors were ignorant. Only rare old survivors recognized us. Others related us to relics like stone figurines, cave paintings, or oral traditions. To them we were the gods who created the world returning from heaven. They rejoiced to see us, which made our job somewhat easier. A quick scan revealed the extent of the job of restoring the world of humanity to advanced civilized life. Most larger animals were extinct. The starving humans had resorted to war, pillage, and cannibalism.
“Our teams fanned out across the world to find, rescue, and re-civilize the survivors, scattered across the world’s scarred face. We restored water and food supplies, sanitary conditions, and reeducated the people. Our scientists produced mutant versions of plant and animal life that could adapt to Earth’s new climate. We introduced technologies, life sciences, social laws, and culture at a rapid pace. Most important of all, we reintroduced the study of existence, alchemy. Cults grew up around us, our life regenerating powers, and civilizing miracles. We became creator gods, roaming the earth doing good deeds. At first we did not mind the characterization, since it made our work easier. But our wiser leaders pointed out the risks of our being misperceived. When societies undergo technological and social changes too quickly, many become disoriented. A civilization needs spiritual maturity to adopt the powers of technology. Otherwise, decadence supercedes enlightenment.”
The Guardian paused. He closed his radiant blue eyes and grew somber. His tall shining body somewhat withered, and visibly dimmed in luminosity. Everyone wondered in anxious anticipation, about what was storming through his superb intellect. “I am here tonight to warn you. The melting polar ice masses, moved to warmer latitudes by the calamitous polar shift, have been rapidly thawing. This has brought about instability. The Earth will be changing again. A new catastrophe is upon you, through which many of you will not survive.”
Everyone froze in disbelief. Only Silicone understood what the Guardian meant. Silicone remembered the event that turned it into a wandering vagabond.
“Within months,” the Guardian said, “a massive flood will inundate most of Earth’s surface. Only the highest land will be spared.”
The Guardian paused while his audience digested the news. Some women wept, others comforted them. Many gazed into the distance. Why was the creator not kinder? What was the purpose of so much misery? It was all hard to understand.
The Guardian continued. “Melting ice has for millennia been gathering far to the northwest of here behind a frozen earthen damn, creating a giant inland sea at an elevation higher than the oceans. Should the frozen wall fail, the release of water into the world’s oceans will be catastrophic. We know it’s weakening. We believe it will fail. The only question is when. Our analysis shows that the resulting flood’s tidal waves will sweep most of Earth’s surface. Only the highlands will escape. Even here your life will change. Most life forms will be lost. It will take years of global flooding and rainstorms to eventually redistribute the water around the globe.
Silicone comment